FIONA HOFFER
RECENT SCULPTURE AND PHOTOGRAPHY

2019 ~ 9'x8.5'x15' ~ steel, corrugated tin, concrete, cast iron, braided wire ~ Passage draws imagery from culverts, tunnels, buoys, bell clappers, and organic forms to explore themes of transition, loss, and connection. Hoffer’s work often deals with grief and memory and their artistic process for Passage began with questions. Instead of running away from grief or change, how might it enrich us to sit with loss? How can acknowledging someone or something that is lost allow us to connect with that someone or something and how can this help us forge a new way forward in times of transition? The cast iron droplets that hang from the piece were originally inspired by imagery of bell clappers and the idea of the tongues of bells existing without their bodies. Hoffer imagines these drops as voices or spirits, no longer with body, but still able to heard if the space and time is taken to connect with them. However, as an artist Hoffer believes viewers’ interpretations of art are just as much a part of the piece as their original intentions and is happy for people to view the drops and the overall piece as something different from the ideas that first inspired the sculpture. The patte

2019 ~ 9'x8.5'x15' ~ steel, corrugated tin, concrete, cast iron, braided wire ~

2019 ~ 9'x8.5'x15' ~ steel, corrugated tin, concrete, cast iron, braided wire ~

2018 recycled wood, rusted corrugated metal and tin, plexiglass, fluorescent lights, vinyl, water, hospital gown, button down shirt, nightgown, water, pillow, blanket ~ Memory Boat is an homage to grief as a perpetual, individual journey and memory as something fallible and questionably constructed. The boat is constructed with a wooden frame and encased in metal, concealing a false bottom from which lights illuminate clothing on the inside of the boat, floating in water.

2018 recycled wood, rusted corrugated metal and tin, plexiglass, fluorescent lights, vinyl, water, hospital gown, button down shirt, nightgown, water, pillow, blanket

2018 image detail ~ recycled wood, rusted corrugated metal and tin, plexiglass, fluorescent lights, vinyl, water, hospital gown, button down shirt, nightgown, water

2018 detail ~ recycled wood, rusted corrugated metal and tin, pillow, blanket

2018 digital photos of sculptural compositions, photographed on top of a light box. Wood, metal bars, fluorescent lights, transparency paper. Original sculptural compositions include clothing, hose tubing, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, spools of film, grass, saw blade, light bulbs, empty light fixture, dress, nylons, and other found objects

2018 digital photos of sculptural compositions, photographed on top of a light box. Wood, metal bars, fluorescent lights, transparency paper. Original sculptural compositions include clothing, hose tubing, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, spools of film, grass, saw blade, light bulbs, empty light fixture, dress, nylons, and other found objects

2018 digital photos of sculptural compositions, photographed on top of a light box. Wood, metal bars, fluorescent lights, transparency paper. Original sculptural compositions include clothing, hose tubing, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, spools of film, grass, saw blade, light bulbs, empty light fixture, dress, nylons, and other found objects

2017 sculpture and photography, digital images layered on transparency paper, clothing, wooden box, LED lights ... This piece explores themes of memorialization, disconnection from memory, and attempts to reconnect with what is lost. The images lined up in a grid are layered transparencies of sculptural forms that were originally photographed on top of a 6x3' light box that I built.The combination of natural materials, stockings, and clothing combined with household items and tools made obsolete suggests the idea of a presence that is trying to be reassembled after being dehumanized and stripped down to its disheveled, ill fitting parts. The box in the photo is the original light box the photos were taken on, but for this piece I transformed the box so that clothing became trapped inside of the box itself. The images in the grid are layered with additional images printed on transparencies, multiplying and sometimes blurring their forms.

2017 close up

2017 close up

2017 close up

2017 image close up ~ digital images on layered transparencies hose tubing, nylons, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, spools of film, grass, and other found objects... The forms are a composite of layered images printed on transparencies, making the forms purposefully range in clarity and blur in places as a result.

2017 image close up ~ digital images on layered transparencies hose tubing, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, spools of film, grass, saw blade, light bulbs, empty light fixture, dress, nylons, and other found objects

2017 image close up ~ digital images on layered transparencies hose tubing, nylons, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, rope, spools of film, grass, light bulbs, empty light fixture, and other found objects

2017 image close up ~ digital images on layered transparencies hose tubing, nylons, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, rope, spools of film, grass, light bulbs, empty light fixture, saw blade, jacket, and other found objects

2017 image close up ~ digital images on layered transparencies hose tubing, nylons, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, rope, spools of film, grass, light bulbs, empty light fixture, and other found objects

2017 image close up ~ digital images on layered transparencies hose tubing, nylons, dress, cotton stuffing, recycled farming tools, rope, spools of film, grass, light bulbs, empty light fixture, and other found objects

2017 Sculpture and digital photography, photo taken on top of light box, brown paper, tape, cyanotype on cotton fabric ... This is a series of sculptures, turned into photos once they are layered and photographed digitally on top of a light box. The image in the photos is from my mother's memorial. The pieces of paper and fabric shown without my mother's image were originally meant to also be cyanotypes with her image on them, but they washed out. As a result, the viewer is seeing my mother's likeness and also seeing where here image faded away.

2017 Sculpture and digital photography, photo taken on top of light box, brown paper, tape, cyanotype on cotton fabric, image on transparency

2017 Sculpture and digital photography, photo taken on top of light box, brown paper, tape, cyanotype on cotton fabric, image on clear acrylic medium

2017 Sculpture and digital photography, photo taken on top of light box, brown paper, tape, cyanotype on cotton fabric, pearl necklace